When i am trying to start Apache, the following error appears in the Apache error log:
PHP Fatal error: [ionCube Loader] The Loader must appear as the first entry in the php.ini file in Unknown on line 0
When i am trying to start Apache, the following error appears in the Apache error log:
PHP Fatal error: [ionCube Loader] The Loader must appear as the first entry in the php.ini file in Unknown on line 0
From the error message itself its clear what is the error. Please do some research before posting on stackoverflow.
Zend extensions can be loaded directly from /etc/php.ini file or included from /etc/php.d/ directory.
In the following example, this ioncube line must appear before any Zend configuration sections. These sections usually begin with [Zend] so they should be easy to see:
zend_extension=/usr/lib/ioncube/php_ioncube_loader_lin_X.X.so
If extensions are loaded from /etc/php.d, they are loaded in alphabetical order. Usually the ioncube file is named /etc/php.d/ioncube.ini and zend is /etc/php.d/zend.ini. In this scenario, it should not present a problem.
Finally, make sure that ioncube is loaded only once. The following command should only return one result:
grep 'zend_extension.ioncube' /etc/php.ini /etc/php.d/
If you make any configuration changes, always be sure to restart Apache:
/etc/init.d/httpd restart
This error occurs because of an incorrect extension order in PHP configuration. Read this website may help you. You must load ioncube with higher priority.
Came to this thread when looking for this error, as @Hari Swaminathan said.
If extensions are loaded from /etc/php.d, they are loaded in alphabetical order
I got the error on a docker setup. So naming ini file like 00-ioncube.ini
solved the problem